thehometree | Glimmer, glitter, shine...

Entry tags:

Glimmer, glitter, shine...

One by one, new adventurers now arrive in the Tree. As one gain wings and rises to the second floor, another light brings in the next person. Soon, a steady stream of people from all kinds of worlds, times and realities come to join the others. Whether confused, angry, excited or scared, your arrival is welcomed with nothing but joy as the fireflies and glow worms descend to greet their new friends.

The Tree offers no explanation and no reason, but the truth is undeniable.

As you will soon realize, it isn't easy to be tiny.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nai, that was really sad...

"Yeah. I hope you do." Without more information, it would be irresponsible to outright tell Nai that he was going to find his friend, but obviously Karoku was very important to him.

"What does he look like?"

Nai smiles and nods confidently. There have been a fair share of setbacks at home but he wholeheartedly believes he and Karoku will be reunited. Now, he happily describes Karoku to the best of his ability.

"Um...he's bigger than me—" He stretches his arm up into the air as far as they can go to demonstrate. "—and his hair and his eyes are blue. Like the sky!"

Edited 2015-03-23 12:18 (UTC)

Well. That should be pretty easy to pick out of a crowd. Why was everyone taller than Kaoru, though? (spoilers it was because he was 14).

"Just out of curiosity, he is human, right?" Swear to god, if Kaoru was supposed to be looking for a big blue alien bear or something...

He's right there with Kaoru on the shorter side of the scale. A good chunk of the people in his life are much taller than him, so using 'big' in his descriptions isn't actually useful when it applies to everyone. Will Nai ever figure that out? Nah.

Kaoru's question is met with a few nods. "Yeah." Humans are people, right? Then that should apply to Karoku. "And he's really kind and smart." The truth? Nai thinks so. Helpful? Probably not.

Well, okay. So at least he knew he was looking for someone person-shaped. Although Kaoru sort of doubted Karoku was here with the rest of them; they seemed to be a rather random assortment of characters so far.

"Are you related?"

"Related?" A quick tilt of the head before he continues. "Like family? Um...I don't know. Karoku was always with me." Surprising, unsurprising? Who knows.

"I'm sure he would have told you if you were..." Hmm. Well, Nai wasn't tall, and he didn't have blue hair or eyes, so if they were related, there were some wacky genetics going on there. Oh, well.

"There are some empty houses in here. You should claim on of the beds in case we need to stay the night." Which was looking ever more probable...

He sure would have, but since he didn't, Nai isn't sure. So he easily moves on to the next topic, which gets him looking around briefly. While the idea of staying here overnight without his friends and especially in a new place is concerning, there really isn't anything else to do. He'll spend most of his time searching the rest of the crowd for familiar faces, but in the end he's going to need a place to stay if the search fails.

"Okay... Kaoru needs a bed too. Let's look for them together."

Kaoru flew up to the third floor -- might as well pick now to get used to these wings. But almost immediately, he shook his head, frowning as he set down.

"This isn't a good setup. I thought it would be warmer up here, but the crack lets in cold air." Apparently, the patch job was unsatisfactory.

The little niji follows as best he can and while he manages to land safely next to Kaoru, it was a dizzying trip. He's in time to shiver as a soft breeze flows in from one of those cracks.

"It was warmer before..." Then Nai looks sadly upon the open spaces in the tree's walls and ventures closer to one, even if it is cold. "The tree is hurt..."

"Someone tried to patch it." Imperfectly, but at least they weren't totally exposed up here.

"Trees can live through a lot. They'll grow around rocks and metal beams if they have to. This one doesn't have any heartwood. But it seems like it's doing fine."

Come to think of it, instead of heartwood, it had that weird light...

He looks back at Kaoru, expression unchanged. Kaoru's right—despite the holes and their poor patchwork, he doesn't feel as though the tree is in great pain. The setting is surprisingly comforting, actually, regardless of these small wounds. He knows trees are strong, having been surrounded by them for most of his life, but it's for that reason he worries for them in particular.

"Can we make the holes better?"

Edited 2015-03-27 12:59 (UTC)

"I don't think it will help the tree much, but it might help us. We could gather some grass to use as insulation. They used to use it for roofs." You were a nice guy, Nai.

"In the meantime, it's best to take a house on the first floor. It's warmer down there."

"Insu...lation?" He doesn't know what that means but he does believe that patching up the holes will make the tree better, so he'll easily go along with Kaoru's plans.

"Okay, um." He looks back down through the hole, where the lower floors can be seen. It's definitely warmer down there, but his wings flicker nervously behind him. "Flying down is hard..."

"Material to trap the heat and make it warmer inside." Not that there really seemed to be tons of stuff to use other than grass, but it might help.

Kaoru looked at the hole, then at Nai. He looked like he was struggling with something, but at last he held out his hand and looked resolutely away from Nai.

"...Grab my hand."

Oh, then this insulation was a good thing. He'll remember this and look for some grass as well to help with it.

He doesn't see Kaoru's glances since he's still staring down the hole, but his attention is re-focused when the other boy speaks and he looks up to find a hand offered to him. He stares at it and Kaoru (even if he's turned away) for a long moment, confused and curious, before taking it. Yes, best not to get lost when trying to find somewhere to sleep—at least that's his understanding of hand-holding.

"Is it hard for Kaoru too? It'll be easier like this?" He certainly hopes so, judging by that, well, hopeful look on his face.

Kaoru glanced at him quickly, confused himself. Nai asking him if this was hard for him... as in being here? Or was he talking about the descent?

"No." The answer was reflexive, shut up he wasn't lonely and he didn't need help with anything. Everything was fine. After a moment he added: "...I'm used to having to improvise. I'll help you glide down; just do what I do."

He set his wings at what he deemed the correct angle for gliding, and looked expectantly at Nai.

Hopefully Kaoru will learn that the words out of Nai's mouth don't often have any deeper meaning, certainly not purposefully. He speaks his mind as soon as something pops into it, for better or worse.

He doesn't understand what Kaoru means by 'improvise,' but it's probably more important that they'll be helping each other. So he nods a few times and has his wings unfold in the same fashion (after several seconds of trial-and-error) before tightly gripping the other boy's hand.

"O-Okay!"

And with that, Kaoru tugged Nai off the ledge. Surely gliding down should be easier than flying, and as long as Nai didn't flail around too wildly, he was fairly sure he could bear both of them down if need be. They were a lot lighter than they once were, after all...

"We'll just go in a wide spiral all the way down. We shouldn't fall too fast that way."

"Wide, um..." Oh there's no way he'd understand, so he simply does his best to follow Kaoru closely. He grips the other boy's hand tightly so as to not let either of them be parted from the other, and concentrates on using his wings. If he can fly up, surely he can learn to fly downward too. And with the way they're going, it is indeed not too fast.

When their feet eventually touch the ground, Nai looks at Kaoru with wide eyes, full of admiration (and is still holding onto his hand, by the way). "We did it! It's because of Kaoru."

Kaoru reclaimed his hand, thank you very much, and stood there looking a little awkward -- he wasn't used to dealing with compliments. His usual method of dealing with them was to blow them off and disappear somewhere, only that would probably hurt Nai's feelings or something.

"...You'll get used to doing it, too. How about that house over there?"

A route well chosen, and Nai has another smile to offer him.

"Yeah, I'll try my best." As for the house, he looks over in the direction Kaoru is referring to, and after giving it a long look, he brightens. "I like it! Do you like it too? There's more houses over there and there. But—oh, some people are already in them."

"Best not to take over theirs, then," said Kaoru. "This first house is fine. It looks nice and warm."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Glimmer, glitter, shine...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

end thread?